Some of the hardest parts of reading through the Bible are the genealogies in 1 and 2 Chronicles. Someone was the father of someone who was the father of zzzzzzzz... Reading the Bible chronologically helps break up 7 chapters in a row of these things. I appreciate that!
Today’s post covers the beginning of the history of the Nation of Israel, mainly the early lives of the prophet Samuel and Kings Saul and David.
Samuel’s story began with his mother’s fervent prayers for a child. Hannah prayed for years to be blessed with a son, and finally Samuel was born. She was so grateful that God gave her a son that she gave him back to God as soon as he was old enough to serve in the temple. Samuel served under Eli the priest until he was a young man. Then the Lord called Samuel to be a prophet, to speak God’s words to the people of Israel.
Shortly after this, Israel went to battle against the Philistines (they will do this a lot) and the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant. They thought it would guarantee them victory in battle. Didn’t work. In fact, when they placed the Ark in the temple of their false god Dagon, the statue of Dagon fell down on its face in front of the Ark and the glory of God. Twice. Finally the Ark was returned to Israel.
Samuel acted as a prophet and judge for many years. However, the people of Israel grew tired of having a judge and wanted a king because, well, all the other nations had one. Despite Samuel’s warnings of how unpleasant life with a king would be, Israel begged and God relented. God chose a man by the name of Saul, who would be a prophet and warrior as well as a ruler. Unfortunately, Saul did all the awful things Samuel said a king would do, taking the people’s crops and cattle in taxes and taking their sons for war. One of the longest wars was with the Philistines (remember them?) and one big guy in particular by the name of Goliath. The unlikely hero of that particular battle was a scrappy young shepherd boy named--you guessed it--David. What Saul didn’t know was that David had already secretly been anointed king by Samuel.
Saul had made a habit of foolish, rash decisions and God no longer saw fit to have him serve as king. As Saul tried frantically to hold onto the power that was slipping into David’s hands, Saul’s son Jonathan became fast friends with David. Saul grew jealous of the younger man’s fame and skill in victory; jealousy turned to madness. More than once Saul tried to literally pin David to the wall with his spear.
Jonathan helped David elude King Saul’s attempts on his life, and David ran to the city of Gath seeking shelter. Political intrigue? In the Bible? Who knew!
Psalms 59 and 34, written by David during this time, show the fear in David’s heart, yet also show his faith that God would deliver him from his enemies. David’s faith would sustain him in this trial and the ones to come. You’ll read about that in the next post.
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